People

Jane Gogh

Foreign Firms Eye Hong Kong IPO Market Once Again

Two foreign companies are planning initial public offerings in Hong Kong, signaling a revival of interest after a lull in the past year.

Japanese digital services firm Digital Garage Group is planning to raise up to $100 million in a Hong Kong IPO, and Italian chemical producer M&G Chemicals is planning to raise around $500 million ahead of an October listing in Hong Kong, The Wall Street Journal reported Tuesday.

People walk outside the Hong Kong Stock Exchange Thursday, June 20, 2013. Associated Press
Two foreign companies are planning initial public offerings in Hong Kong, signaling a revival of interest after a lull in the past year.

Japanese digital services firm Digital Garage Group is planning to raise up to $100 million in a Hong Kong IPO, and Italian chemical producer M&G Chemicals is planning to raise around $500 million ahead of an October listing in Hong Kong, The Wall Street Journal reported Tuesday.

The planned listings could give a shot in the arm not only to Hong Kong’s IPO market, which has been moribund for months with a number of deals pulled since May, but also to the local stock exchange’s goal of attracting more foreign companies.

Digital Garage has already submitted an application to the Hong Kong stock exchange to list its online payment business econtext Asia Ltd., and M&G Chemicals is set to be the second Italian company to list in Hong Kong after Prada SpAPRDSY +1.32%’s 2011 debut.

The two planned IPOs are the first sizeable ones by foreign companies in Hong Kong since Japanese pachinko-parlor operator Dynam Japan Holdings Co.6889.HK +0.27% raised $202 million ahead of its August 2012 listing.

While commodities-focused companies had been key to the Hong Kong stock exchange’s pitch to foreign companies, some have had second thoughts in recent months about the value of a Hong Kong listing, with Russian aluminum producer United Co. Rusal PLC saying in June that it plans to list shares on its home Micex Stock Exchange, for example.

The company’s shares, like those of other foreign commodities companies, are thinly traded in Hong Kong, but consumer-focused stocks such as Prada have performed well.